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Breaking Down Barriers Innovations in Cross-Border Harm Reduction Between Yunnan Province, China and Burma (Myanmar)

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Breaking Down Barriers Innovations in Cross-Border Harm Reduction Between Yunnan Province, China and Burma (Myanmar) www.haarp-online.org BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS Innovations in cross-border harm reduction between Yunnan Province, China and Burma (Myanmar) A HAARP Positive Practice Study: In collaboration with Yunnan Provincial HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Bureau and Yunnan Public Health Bureau Acknowledgements This Positive Practice study was commissioned by the HIV/AIDS Asia Regional Program (HAARP) Technical Support Unit in Bangkok and was drafted by Corrie Mills. © Commonwealth of Australia 2011 We would like to thank all in the Yunnan Injecting Drug User Cross-Border This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Harm Reduction Project (Yunnan Cross-Border Project) and the Ruili AIDS Copyright Act 1968 no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth. Requests and Department for their support and hospitality while researching this study. inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed We would also like to acknowledge all those who helped produce this to the Commonwealth Copyright Administration, Attorney General’s Department, Robert Garran Offices, National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600 document: Duo Lin, HAARP Yunnan Manager; Zhang Miaoyun, Chief of the or posted at Ruili AIDS Department; Han Shuaizhan, Qiu Zhengxian and Mao Chunling, www.ag.gov.au/cca Ruili outreach workers; Li Hong, Director of the Education and Science Department, Yunnan Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Zhou This document is online at: www.ausaid.gov.au/publications For more information about the Australian Government’s international Hongmei, Deputy Director, Administration Office of the Yunnan Provincial development program, contact: HIV/AIDS Prevention & Control Bureau; Michael Cole, Australian Agency for International Development; Mukta Sharma, HAARP Technical Support Unit; Communications Section and Ji Xue, Project Officer, Yunnan Injecting Drug User Cross-Border Harm AusAID GPO Box 887 Reduction Project. Canberra ACT 2601 Australia Phone +61 2 6206 4000 Facsimile +61 2 6206 4880 Internet www.ausaid.gov.au Edited and designed by Inís Communication www.iniscommunication.com Contents Acknowledgements ii Abbreviations iv 1. Introduction 1 2. Background 2 3. Key achievements to date 3 3.1 Rapid setup 3 3.2 Sustainability 4 3.3 Generating strategic information 4 3.4 Cross-border cooperation 4 4. The Yunnan Cross-Border Project in action 6 4.1 Cross-border capacity building 6 4.2 Cross-border research and strategic information 8 4.3 Cross-border service provision 9 5. Challenges and areas for improvement 12 Abbreviations 5.1 Equal participation 12 5.2 Improvements in service delivery and referral 12 5.3 Emphasis on the local context 12 AIDS acquired immunodeficiency syndrome 5.4 Gender awareness 12 ARHP Asia Regional HIV and AIDS Project 5.5 Selecting and training outreach workers 12 EAP effective approach project HAARP HIV and AIDS Asia Regional Program 6. Lessons learned and best practice in cross-border working 13 HIV human immunodeficiency virus 6.1 Using regional programs to facilitate cross-border work 13 IEC information, education and communication 6.2 Importance of flexibility 13 MMT methadone maintenance treatment 6.3 Importance of strong local knowledge 13 NSP needle and syringe program 6.4 Need for advocacy and education first 14 TSU Technical Support Unit 6.5 Research into practice 14 6.6 Politics and security 14 1. Introduction Box 1. Innovations in Ruili County • Doubling up – making use of existing services and facilities to shorten setup time and reduce costs. “Before, the idea was to create a wall to stop HIV, but now we are cooperating as if we were one big region. Yunnan has shifted its policy from one-sided • Sustainability – strengthened through reduced costs of efforts to try to stop the disease to encouraging border counties to build using existing staff and services, and county government relations with the other side.” support • Results that push for policy change – producing and Zhou Hongmei, Yunnan Provincial Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control sharing data to better understand the nature of the epidemic This case study was commissioned by the Australian Agency for International and by monitoring the outcomes of harm reduction Development’s Technical Support Unit (TSU) HIV/AIDS Asia Regional Program interventions to demonstrate what works in practice. (HAARP) to identify achievements and lessons learned from the Yunnan • Flexibility – helps address gaps in service provision and Injecting Drug User Cross-Border Harm Reduction Project (Yunnan Cross- respond to shifts in local and national policy and in the Border Project) on China’s borders with Burma (Myanmar) and Vietnam. epidemic itself. • Involving the private sector – Ruili AIDS Department’s Operating for only one year, the project has been noted for its rapid setup promotion of the active participation of all sectors of society. and quick gains in coverage. As part of the HAARP Positive Practice series, the Its cross-border project has used outreach workers who are purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanisms and strategies used not drug users, including doctors and local business people by project staff, as well as any potential to replicate them in other settings. such as language school teachers and shopkeepers. The study focuses on cross-border activities taking place between Ruili County in Yunnan Province and its Burmese neighbour, Muse. This site was selected for its innovative approach to cross-border cooperation and service provision. In addition, the study takes into account the strategic information and guidance provided at the national and provincial level, which has created a supportive framework for cross-border activities. 1 users cross to Burma (Myanmar) to buy cheaper drugs and Burmese 2. Background drug users cross to China to find work. The Yunnan Cross-Border Project seeks to address the HIV epidemic on both sides of the border by: The Yunnan Cross-Border Project began on 1 November 2009, following • establishing coordination mechanisms for cross-border cooperation the Yunnan Provincial AIDS Bureau’s successful tender for Round One HAARP cross-border funding. Its aim is to control the spread • responding to the epidemic on both sides of the border with services of HIV among drug users and their partners along Yunnan Province’s for drug users and capacity building for local service providers international borders with Burma (Myanmar) and Vietnam by supporting • gathering strategic information to increase limited research into and effective harm reduction interventions. knowledge of effective cross-border programming. In southwestern China, Yunnan shares over 4000 kilometres of Set-up of the cross-border project has benefited from the existing international border with Burma (Myanmar), Laos and Vietnam, placing HAARP project management team in the Yunnan Provincial HIV/AIDS it at the doorstep of the ‘golden triangle’ of heroin production. In 1989, Prevention & Control Bureau. The team was first established under the the first case of HIV in China was detected in Yunnan’s Ruili County. Asia Regional HIV/ AIDS Program (ARHP), 2000–2007 and was later To date, the province has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in scaled up from four project sites to HAARP’s current 19 sites. China. Prevalence in China is considerably higher among people who Three sites have been set up along the Burmese border (Ruili/Muse, inject drugs: 9.3% in 2009 compared with an overall prevalence of 0.1%.1 Yinjiang/Kachin State and Longchuan/Lwejie) and one on the Vietnamese Yunnan is estimated to have 23 000 drug users in its border areas, or border (Hekou/Lau Cai). Of these four, Ruili/Muse is notable as the only 27.1% of the provincial total.2 one that already had HAARP project sites established on both sides of Yunnan’s HIV epidemic is compounded by those of its neighbours. In the border. 2009, HIV prevalence among injecting drug users was 18.4% in Vietnam The Yunnan Cross-Border Project in Ruili County brings together the and 36.3% in Burma (Myanmar).3 In many places, there are no clear border Ruili AIDS Department with the HAARP Effective Approach Project barriers, and the number of daily crossings between countries is high. (EAP) site in Muse, Burma (Myanmar). Ruili County had already begun People who inject drugs frequently cross the border, as Chinese drug some cross-border work ahead of the project, inviting a Burmese study tour in 2008 and establishing a drop-in centre for Burmese truck drivers 1 UNAIDS 2010 – http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/china/ [Accessed just across the border in Ruili City. HAARP’s cross-border funding has 02/02/11] 2 Yunnan Provincial HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Bureau 2010, Cross border report afforded the Ruili AIDS Department the opportunity to expand its (November), [Kunming, China] activities and has further encouraged creative intervention. 3 UNAIDS 2010 2 3. Key achievements to date 3.1 Rapid setup The greatest achievement of the Yunnan Cross-Border Project is undoubtedly the speed with which it began operating. Some needle and syringe program (NSP) sites, notably in Ruili County, were established in November 2009, the same month that the contract was signed with the TSU. At the end of one year, the project reached 1248 Burmese and Vietnamese clients. Achievement indicators of the Yunnan Cross Border Project, 2010 Item (number) Hekou Longchuan Ruili Yinjiang Total Information, education and communication materials distributed 94 1537 417 217 2265 Condoms distributed 618 7372 2370 6268 16 628 Needles/syringes distributed 11 613 66 331 80 953 120 144 279 041 Needles/syringes collected 10 012 61 814 75 520 93 417 240 763 Referrals made 0 92 28 48 168 Contacts made with Vietnamese or Burmese clients 1544 15 764 23 735 11 855 52 898 Vietnamese or Burmese clients 113 279 591 265 1248 Vietnamese or Burmese clients (male) 92 275 581 216 1164 Vietnamese or Burmese clients (female) 21 4 10 49 84 Contacts made with Chinese clients 245 1560 32 445 2282 Chinese clients 64 77 17 166 324 Chinese clients (male) 49 77 17 163 306 Chinese clients (female) 15 0 0 3 18 3 In the last year, Ruili County achieved impressive coverage.
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